Tag: Boy Scouts

As I posted earlier, I’m working on expanding my repertoire of outdoor cooking techniques and recipes this year. The Boy will be crossing over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts in the Spring, and I won’t have to cook for 80 people at a time on Cub Scout family campouts (we have a really large and active Cub Scout Pack).

When I camp with the Boy Scout Troop, I’ll be cooking with the adult patrol, and I’ll have the opportunity to cook small (or individual) meals. I’m greatly looking forward to that. I’m also working on learning some new small group recipes to teach to The Boy’s Webelos den (the Beaver Patrol — which is a completely unironic name chosen by 10-year-olds) some easy small-group recipes for their den campouts, the first of which is coming up soon.

In addition to the other outdoor cooking books I already own, I recently picked up a copy of Cliff Jacobson’s Basic Illustrated Cooking in the Outdoors (Falcon Guides, 2008). I’m a BIG fan of Cliff and his books (especially Expedition Canoeing which I also recently bought and will talk about here in this blog at some point) and his articles in Scouting magazine. Cliff Jacobson is a Distinguished Eagle Scout, experienced leader of wilderness trips, and a retired Environmental Science teacher. Clarke Green (of the excellent Scoutmaster Blog and Podcast) recently posted some video interviews that someone else did with Cliff fairly recently, and they are entertaining and enlightening.

I haven’t finished reading all the recipes yet, but the thing I like most about the book is that it’s full of advice about preparing meals in the outdoors. Yes, that would seem obvious, but many “outdoor cooking” books are mostly collections of recipes and have little experienced practical advice in them. Cliff’s book is FULL of that sort of information.

The book was published in 2008, so it’s pretty up-to-date, but there may be a few techniquest or pieces of gear in that have been superseded by better options. For example, I would think cozies made out of reflectix would be easier to make and more efficient than Cliff’s wool and batting design, but I could be wrong.

The book is focused on group cooking where you can carry a lot of supplies and gear, so it’s more focused on canoe trips (no surprise there, given Cliff’s background) or car camping. Many of the techniques can be adapted for backpacking use, though.